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Venezuelan crude: The prize beneath the chaos

As Trump pivots from hunting narcoterrorists to promising oil profits, the fate of the broken Latin American nation is being rewritten

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    • The Cardon oil refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. The country sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, with an estimated 303 billion barrels.
    • The Cardon oil refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. The country sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, with an estimated 303 billion barrels. PHOTO: NYTIMES

    Leon Hadar

    Published Thu, Jan 8, 2026 · 07:00 AM

    THE predawn raid that removed Nicolas Maduro from power on Jan 3 marked the most dramatic US regime change operation in Latin America in recent decades.

    Yet, within hours of announcing the military strike, US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric shifted from narco-trafficking justifications to something far more candid: oil.

    “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,” Trump declared, making explicit what many had long suspected lay at the heart of escalating US pressure on Venezuela.

    VenezuelaTrump administrationoil

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